The Midwich Cuckoos: Now a major Sky series starring Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley

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However, in in the collection Consider Her Ways and Others (see my review HERE), a couple of the stories have a strong female/feminist slant.

Wyndham began work on a sequel novel, Midwich Main, which he abandoned after only a few chapters. [11] Adaptation [ edit ] Films [ edit ] Aldiss, Brian W. (1973). Billion year spree: the history of science fiction. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p.293. ISBN 978-0-297-76555-4. In my opinion, [John] Wyndham’s chef d’oeuvre . . . a graphic metaphor for the fear of unwanted pregnancies . . . I myself had a dream about a highly intelligent nonhuman baby after reading this book.”—Margaret Atwood , Slate Another enjoyable weird tale by Wyndham, who brought us The Day of the Triffids (which everyone thinks they know how the story goes until they read it and find out about all the blind people...). In this book - wait - you can tell from anything ever written about it including the blurb - but, if you managed to avoid and are extremely sensitive to "spoilers" please get off at the next stop, ok?Here are is a review from The Guardian but– SPOILER ALERT–do not read it in the event you want to eventually read the novel as the reviewer gives away the plot and ending:

When the 31 boys and 30 girls are born, they appear normal, except for their unusual golden eyes, light blonde hair and pale, silvery skin. The children have none of the genetic characteristics of their mothers. As they grow up, it becomes increasingly apparent that they are, at least in some respects, not human. They possess telepathic abilities and can control others' actions. The Children (they are referred to with a capital C) have two distinct group minds, one for the boys and another for the girls. Their physical development is accelerated compared with that of humans; upon reaching the age of nine, they appear to be sixteen-year-olds. We have both been given the same wish to survive, We are all, you see, toys of the life-force. It made you numerically stronger, but mentally undeveloped. It made us mentally strong but physically weak: now it has set us at one another, to see what will happen. A cruel sport perhaps, from both our points of view, but a very very old one. Cruelty is as old as life itself. There is some improvement: humour and compassion are the most important of human inventions; but they are not very firmly established yet, though promising well. But the life-force is a lot stronger than they are; and it won't be denied its blood-sports."

Success!

Biology (4th edition) NA Campbell, p. 117 'Fixed Action Patterns' (Benjamin Cummings NY, 1996) ISBN 0-8053-1957-3

The Children themselves form two basic entities - male and female - split into 61 "components". By the end they have lived for nine years, look sixteen, and have immeasurable intelligence. The characters in the novel assume a working formula of a 16 year old human's multiplied by the power of 30, but both they and we know that any human comparison is useless. Here Boy speaks for all the Children, trying to explain their position as they request to be moved elsewhere, and thereby putting off the inevitable confrontation between species which would lead to humanity's extinction. What if the women of a sleepy English village all became simultaneously pregnant, and the children, once born, possessed supernatural—and possibly alien—powers? This seven-part series reverts to Wyndham's title. It focuses on the women (Zellaby is now a female character, played by Keeley Hawes), features some siblings, and sets it in an ethnically diverse contemporary commuter town. The first three quarters was fairly interesting but staid and ponderous and not at all frightening but the last quarter became quasi-philosophical, pseudo-political, sort of intellectual and quite frankly duller than a broken doorknob. The ending was also rather sudden and quite frankly insultingly expected. Again, such a masterfully constructed tale. Spoiler alert: I'll touch on a number of revelations made in the course of the plot; however, I suspect many readers are already familiar with the happenings in Midwich, at least in broad outline.An easy read, at first glance, with dated language and characters. But there is more to it than meets the eye.